Natural remedies ‘potentially harmful’

From the National Post:
Half the pharmacists surveyed by Alberta researchers said they had seen evidence of dangerous interactions between natural health products and prescription drugs, a "startling" result that suggests natural remedies cause many more harmful side effects than once thought, a new study concludes.

Most of those pharmacists, however, failed to report the side effects to Health Canada's adverse-reaction database, the study indicated. The findings point to an "urgent need" for additional safety data on herbal and other natural products used by millions of Canadians, said the University of Alberta scientists behind the research.

"This [study] leads us to believe that natural-health product [NHP] adverse events are far more common than previously suspected," said their paper, just published in the journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy. "The majority of Canadians use NHPs and our data confirm that this use may carry unrecognized risk." ...more

Alternate medicine a taxing issue

From the National Post:
More and more Canadians are turning to various types of so-called alternative medicine for relief of health problems. But while such people may be willing to get involved in "leading-edge" treatment, like everybody else they want to get tax relief where possible for their medical expenses.

One of the first questions is whether dealing with somebody other than a traditional medical doctor will jeopardize potential claims. And while the Income Tax Act is national in scope, anomalies may crop up. ...more